Drive-through service or curbside delivery is a common feature provided by businesses such as fast-food restaurants, banks, pharmacies and even coffee shops. The primary goal of such drive-through services is to provide a customer with fast and convenient service while increasing the number of customers that may be served than through conventional walk-in transactions.
Typically, a customer in a car approaches a microphone/speaker system contained in a menu board in a drive-through lane outside of a restaurant, bank, pharmacy, or coffee shop. The customer is prompted by an order-taker, through the speaker, to place an order. The customer dictates an order through the microphone. Generally, the order-taker wears a headset having a microphone and speaker to communicate with the customer placing the order. As the order is being placed or once the order has been taken, the order-taker enters the order information into a order management system. The order information is displayed on a display such that the order can be assembled by a runner.
One type of order management system displays customer order information in one of a plurality of positions sequenced from left to right across the display. As customer order information is inputted, it is placed in any open position on the screen. Once the order appears in that position, it stays in the same position until the order is removed from the display, i.e., the order is delivered to the customer. In the event that there is no open position, the order information is placed in a memory queue. Once a position opens up, the order information is placed in that position and will remain in that position until it is removed from the display, i.e., the order is delivered to the customer. The order information includes a colored header indicating the sequence that orders should be presented to the respective customer. These indicators change as orders are delivered to a customer and the customer product order information relating to that order is removed from the screen. Such static displays are difficult for presenters because they have to search the screen to determine which order is the next order to be presented as well as remember the priority of the colored headers.
In another type of order management system, the drive-through order queue is sequenced in a left-to-right format. As the first order is presented or delivered to the customer, it is bumped from the screen and the other orders shift to the left. This type of left-to-right display may reduce order accuracy and efficiency because the runner is forced to search the screen for the order they are filling while “filled” orders remain on the screen. In addition, there is no indication of the status of the order, such as whether it has been assembled, whether it is in the process of being assembled, or whether it needs to be or has been modified.
The present invention is provided to solve the problems discussed above and other problems, and to provide advantages and aspects not provided by prior systems of this type. A full discussion of the features and advantages of the present invention is deferred to the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.